Liberty advances to finals, Eagles beat Indians

John Rosa and Brad Byler

Published November 5, 2006 at midnight

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ENGLEWOOD – There’s no way to quantify how much of a factor experience plays in the state tournament, but it definitely does have an impact.

Saturday’s first Class 4A soccer semifinal at Englewood High School is a perfect example. Second-seeded Liberty, who has played in seven straight final fours, dominated play early against Golden, which was playing in its first semifinal since 1994, en route to a 2-0 victory.

Liberty (15-2-2), the No. 2 seed, advances to Tuesday night's final where the Lancers will take on defending champion Broomfield in a rematch of the 2005 final. Golden, the 11th seed, saw its season come to an end at 13-3-2.

Liberty coach Mike Goyden said that, despite the Lancers long history in the semifinals, it was important that his club didn’t look at the game as business as usual.

"We can’t have that mindset," said Goyden, who led Liberty to state titles in 2001 and 2004. "We talk about urgency because nothing can ever be casual."

Golden coach Chad Reid agreed, adding: "We’ve been through so much in the playoffs, shootouts, overtimes and everything else like that. But it’s a different feel being here in the semifinals, especially going against a great team like Liberty."

The Lancers started to take control about 10 minutes into the contest, putting a ton of pressure on the Demons defense until it resulted in a goal. Mitch Lobdell hammered a hard shot that bounced off the hands of Golden keeper Patrick Tinucci and out for a corner kick.

Josh Croster had a header off the corner kick that went off the top crossbar, and then, a short time later, David Trainer had a breakaway chance that Tinucci had to make a great save on to keep the game scoreless.

Liberty finally broke through in the 19th minute when Lobdell sent a corner kick to the far post, where a Golden defender deflected it back to the top of the box where Owen McCarthy stopped it and fired a left-footed rocket into the top corner of the net.

The Lancers added an insurance goal seven minutes later when Kyle Joern took a great forward pass from Thomas Hoang and buried it behind a charging Tinucci.

"It was just the right time at the right place," Joern said. "We read off of each other pretty well. I played it to him and he played it back and then it was in the back of the net."

With the two goal lead, Liberty was much less aggressive in the second half and Golden had a couple of chances to score, with Cullen Siewert and Armando Ibarra putting balls on frame, but Lancers keeper Billy Martinez kept them off the board.

"We felt flat in the first half," Reid said. "We knew we could come out and play a lot harder. I thought the second half represented what we could do. We put a lot more pressure on them and made them work harder."

Liberty 2, Golden 0

G 0 0 – 0

L 2 0 – 2

Goals – L, Owen McCarthy, 19th minute; L, Kyle Joern (Thomas Hoang assist), 26th minute.

Shots on goal – G, 1-2 3; L, 5-1 6.

Saves – G (Patrick Tinucci) 3-1 4; L (Billy Martinez) 1-2 3.

Corner kicks – G, 0-5 5; L, 2-01 3.

Cards – G, Nate Hughes (yellow), 46th minute.

Broomfield 2, Cheyenne Mountain 0

Despite all its accomplishments in the past decade, there’s one thing the Broomfield boys soccer program has never accomplished: win back-to-back state titles.

The Eagles will get a chance to defend their Class 4A state title Tuesday night after Saturday’s 2-0 victory over pesky Cheyenne Mountain.

The Indians slowed down Broomfield’s powerful offensive attack, which had outscored three previous playoff opponents 25-0, but the Eagles (18-0-1) still found the cracks in the Indians defense and turned them into craters.

Ryan Garren gave No. 1 seed Broomfield a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute when he finished off a great centering pass from Nathan Kafer.

"To score the first goal kills a team," Garren said. "They came off of two overtime wins, some big wins, so when we got the first goal it kind of deflated them. We put them back in their place and then we were able to play Broomfield soccer."

Cheyenne Mountain (17-2) was playing without top forward Jabari Velinor, who was disqualified with a red card in the previous game, but the Indians still displayed toughness and grit against the Eagles. In the early minutes of the game Cheyenne Mountain, the No. 4 seed, had the early offensive push. Andrew Glass fired a shot from 30 yards over the Broomfield net, and Ben Glass had a low shot stopped by Eagles keeper Ben Sabados. Cheyenne Mountain played a physical game on defense, but its offensive momentum faded. The Indians did not have a shot on goal in the second half.

Broomfield, meanwhile, might have been accused of looking too hard for style points. The Eagles had several near misses that would have been highlight material, but they couldn’t put Cheyenne Mountain away with a second goal until the 64th minute, when Kyle Reddy punched the ball into the far corner of the Indians net. Cheyenne Mountain keeper Hunter Huffman dove in an attempt to stop Mike Park’s crossing path and Reddy was on the receiving end. He shot sailed over Huffman as he lay sprawled out in front of the net.

Broomfield had beaten two playoffs opponents by 10-0 scores, but Reddy said they knew this one would be different.

"It was definitely a big test," he said. "It’s a semifinal game so we knew it wouldn’t be, like, 10-0 again. We were patient. We knew it would come. So we just relaxed and did what we could.’’

Broomfield coach Jim Davidson said the challenge of playing in a low-scoring, high intensity match was good for the Eagles heading into the championship game against Liberty.

"To go in 1-0 at halftime and have this team pressing us a little bit, I think its good,’’ Davidson said. "We know that in the championship game there’s going to be a lot of pressure and its going to be fast-paced and we’re going to have to execute under pressure.’’

Cheyenne Mountain?0 0 — 0

Broomfield? 1 1 — 2

Goals – Ryan Garren (Nathan Kafer) 20:48, Kyle Reddy (Mike Park) 63:33. Shots-on-goal – CM, 1-0 1; B, 2-4 6. Saves – CM (Hunter Huffman) 0-3 (team saves) 1-0 4; B (Ben Sabados) 1-0 1. Corner kicks – CM, 0-0 0; B, 0-2 2. Yellow cards – CM, Chris Massa, Tom O’Dea, Andrew Glass; B, Cole Chapleski, Ryan Aweida.

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